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19th November 2025
WednesdayReflection
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Dennis Bratcher
is an ordained minister in the
Church of the Nazarene
"Psalm 139:16 and Predestination:"
you saw me before I was born.
Many understand Psalm 139:16 to teach predestination, the idea that God predetermines our lives long before we were born.
They also tend to see this verse as biblical proof for the absolute omniscience of God concerning the future, that God knows precisely every single event that will occur at any time in the future
This is a far more complicated issue than most people imagine.
It is easy to read biblical passages through certain theological or doctrinal lenses and assume a meaning that fits that doctrine.
This particular passage is a good example, not just of problems with too easily applying a passage to a certain doctrine, but of some of the more complex issues of properly and accurately interpreting Scripture.
In this case, the problems are not even primarily of interpretation, but are mostly problems with the text itself, how the physically written words have been preserved and transmitted to us in ancient manuscripts.
Before we can begin to talk about the meaning of this verse, we have to begin with the actual text itself to see if there are any problems with how the text has been preserved.
In this case, there are several textual problems with the verse.
Textual problems refer to difficulties with how the original language is physically written in a manuscript.
We also must keep in mind that we do not have a "master text" of the Bible stored in a vault somewhere.
What we have are hundreds, or for the New Testament thousands, of ancient handwritten manuscripts.
These manuscripts do not all agree exactly in every detail, presenting us with thousands of major and minor differences in how the text reads.
Note that in the Hebrew text of Psalm 139:16 given above, there are asterisks toward the end of the verse.
Those indicate serious problems with the text, although there are others as well.
Various ways of reconstructing or understanding the verse account for a variety of ways this verse is translated.
We probably should take the comment of one scholar seriously when he says, "V. 16b is of uncertain meaning."
A complete analysis of the text of this verse would require an understanding of Hebrew.
The first word in the verse in Hebrew (the object of the sentence) only occurs here in the Hebrew Bible.
That is a clue that this is going to be a difficult verse to translate, because most often we simply do not know the precise meaning of such words.
Since the verse is so problematic to translate, perhaps the immediate context can give us some clue to the meaning.
Most psalms tend to be essentially unified in theme, so an examination of the preceding verses in the psalm ought to provide a framework in which to place this verse.
Without trying to exegete the entire psalm, even a cursory reading identifies this psalm as a confession of openness before God.
The theme of the psalm is established by both the opening confession ("you have searched me and known me") and by the concluding prayer ("search me . . . know . . . see . . . lead").
The basic thrust of the psalm is that God knows all about the psalmist, even before he was born, so it will do no good to try to hide "any wicked way" from God.
There is even the poetic imagery of God carefully crafting him in the womb, with the implication that if God made him then God would know everything there is to know about him.
With that confession that God knows all about him, the psalmist places himself in submission to God, and uses that confession as the basis of the prayer for God's guidance in the "way" of life.
It is in this context that the ambiguity of verse 16 must be seen.
If we read "unformed substance," the first part of the verse repeats the thought of the preceding verse: "my frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret."
This is a declaration that God knows about the psalmist even what he does not know about himself.
If we read "my deeds," verse 16 expands the thought of verse 15 to include later action in life.
But the point remains the same in context: God knows all about the psalmist; he can hide nothing from God.
That all suggests that however the last part of verse 16 is to be read, it is not about predestination nor is it about God knowing the future.
Both of those ideas would be to violate the thrust of the rest of the Psalm.
Here, the psalmist can lay himself open before God and pray for God's guidance in his life, not because God knows what will happen or because God has predetermined what will happen, but because God knows the psalmist better then he knows himself.
The psalm is not about omniscience, in the classic meaning of that term.
Neither is it about predestination, although if read uncritically this verse would be one of the strongest predestination passages in Scripture.
So, this psalm is about the knowledge of God, what he knows about us as individuals.
But it is a far leap to abstract this intensely personal psalm, or a single corrupted verse in it, into grandiose statements about the attributes of God.
And, as we have seen, if the text is examined carefully it will not support that anyway.
-Dennis Bratcher, Copyright ©2018, Dennis Bratcher - All Rights Reserved
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
'Dennis R. Bratcher'
A retired professor of Old Testament;
he has earned the PhD in Biblical studies from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia,
and has served as a educator in the church for more than 30 years.
He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene,
has served on staff at a United Methodist church,
and has ministered in a variety of church traditions.
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